Chapter 1 #4
She combed her fingers through her hair, her purse strap nearly falling off her shoulder in the process. The longer they stood there, the more drenched they’d both get.
But the alleyway up ahead made him a little uneasy, and then he turned to the side to put eyes on the sidewalk behind him. No one was on his heels or suspicious from what he could tell anywhere nearby.
Did someone spike his drink? Why was he so off tonight? This woman made him nuts, so it would seem.
“The date was fine. Last date I’ll be going on, though.”
“Wait, what? That bad?” He replayed her words, unsure if he’d heard them correctly. Did he need to go clock the guy? Did the man-boy back there say something wrong? Get handsy? “What happened?”
“Just . . . never mind.” And was that a flustered breath?
She was already on the move, but this time to hail a taxi. The woman didn’t believe in Uber, huh? There were still yellow taxis in New York, though, and she’d managed to get one.
“What happened to walking?” he asked once they were both in the backseat. “Hey.” Finn redirected his attention to the driver when he caught the man’s eyes in the rearview mirror, trying to catch an eyeful of Julia’s soaked blouse. “Eyes on the road.”
“Mm. Hypocrite,” Julia muttered under her breath while crossing her arms as if chilled.
“Can you turn on the heat?” he asked the driver in a nicer tone this time.
“Don’t do me any favors,” she tossed out, and Finn had no clue if she was talking to him or the driver.
She remained quiet the rest of the way back to her building, her gaze set out the window, and he did the same.
He thought back to that alleyway, which had him remembering the night Luke and Jessica had recruited him.
Whatever happened to that kid? He’d never been able to track him down, and he’d always been curious what became of him.
“We’re here,” the driver said upon arrival as if Julia wouldn’t recognize her own building.
She was quicker on the draw with paying the fare than Finn, which irritated the hell out of him. “Let me pay you back for the ride,” he insisted as they walked past her building security to get to the set of elevators.
“Hell no.” She pressed the top button and avoided eye contact in the reflective golden doors. “You don’t need to ride up with me.”
“Doing my job, even if I suck at it,” he said.
When the doors opened, she quickly stepped inside. “The threats are most likely bullshit. I wish you would believe me and walk away.”
He waited for the doors to close before answering, “I don’t walk away from people.
” He slowly turned to put eyes on her. “How long have you actually been receiving threats? Is that the real reason you took my classes? You wanted to protect yourself?” The questions had been floating around in his mind for two weeks.
Julia swept a hand across her collarbone as if brushing away any remaining water droplets rather than buying herself time. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be able to protect yourself.”
What are you hiding? There was something in those cerulean-blue eyes, rain-smeared mascara now beneath them, that told him she was keeping secrets. Probably from her brother, too. And those secrets might get her killed. “You’re right, but—”
“Stop where you’re at. You can’t help me.” She eased a step closer and lifted her chin to continue holding his eyes.
“Help you?” he whispered, his stomach tightening. Worry settling hard and deep. “Why can’t I help you? That’s what your brother hired me to do.”
The doors chimed and opened but neither exited.
“No, he hired you to keep me safe, not to help me.” Her eyes dropped closed for a second before flashing open. “All you’ve done is get in my way.” And like that, she peeled out of the elevator and started for one of only three apartments on the floor.
“Julia, wait,” he called out, hating the desperation in his tone. “Please.”
She’d already slipped inside her apartment and was on the verge of closing the door, effectively shutting him out, but he quickly pushed his booted foot into the slight opening.
“I don’t want you. Go away.”
Her words had him recalling someone else’s voice. Their words that’d been a knife to the heart so long ago. I don’t want you. I can’t look at you. Go away.
“Julia.” Her name escaped his barely parted lips as he forced himself to focus on the present. “Please, don’t make this so hard.” He’d shove open the door if he had to, but he was stupidly hoping for an olive branch of some kind. For her to let him in. Talk to him.
What’d he expect from a woman who’d gone out of her way to push him away for two weeks, though?
“I’m home now. You’re off the clock.” Why the hell was there a tremble to her tone this time? A chink in that steely defense she’d erected.
“We need to talk. I need to know the truth.”
“Sure, remove your boot from the door, and I’ll pour some tea and we’ll have a heartfelt chat.” And there was the woman he’d come to know. The woman who wanted him gone. Ninety-nine percent sour with rare and accidental glimmers of sweetness.
Harper was right.
It was an act.
Julia had slipped up tonight. Let him know there was a hell of a lot more going on than just some notes sent to her office.
“Go. I won’t ask again.” He couldn’t see her face through the slim crack. She must have turned her back to the door, too afraid to look at him because he might witness the truth in her eyes.
“If you change your mind, you know how to reach me.” He was terrified he’d come to regret this decision, but Finn slowly slid his boot from the opening. “Lock up. Be safe.”
The door clicked shut a moment later, just as his work phone began vibrating in his pocket.
“Hey, Harper,” he answered while starting for the elevator, his heart heavy and his thoughts weighing him down more with each step.
“Wheels up at zero nine hundred. Catching a military ride,” Harper cut straight to the point. “Kevin will meet up with you at Julia’s apartment in the morning to swap places so he can take her to work before you head to the hangar.”
Shit. He paused outside the elevator, knowing she wouldn’t answer the door anyway if he went to her apartment now. He’d wait until the morning to tell her he was, in fact, walking away. Doing exactly what he’d told her he didn’t do. But it was what she wanted.
“Where are we going? Did Bravo get a location for us?” He punched the call button and waited.
“Yeah, we’re heading to Egypt.”